WordPress Theme tinkering

It has been a while since I played around with my theme and FSM knows that I love tinkering with my blog more than writing on it. Piker had reprimanded me for indulging in activities that weren’t doing anything toward my PhD (my prof would love him!) but then when rest of the town in this crazy college is going to community parties at North Gate, I play around with my blog code. And Piker himself seems obsessed with online streaming television. And my other PhD blog friend seems more obsessed with blogs than I currently am so I shouldn’t be feeling all that guilty.

K2 is a powerful and versatile theme packed with goodies but then you need change even when everything is perfect. I switched from a two-column layout to three-column but at heart, it still remained a K2 installation. I had spotted a really cool design among these wonderful designs and promptly downloaded it. If you have seen the K2 code, any other theme is ultra-simplistic and this particular one had mere five files – the main index, header, footer, comments, and the stylesheet. I am no CSS guru but have managed to understand some of the intricacies enough to customize the themes and move things around a little bit. You might have even seen the design if you have no life and were surfing around 8-11pm CST. But I am sure, you were out enjoying yourself.

Simple as the theme was, it proved to be too basic as I couldn’t avoid inserting ads without pasting them all over the front page. The theme didn’t have a ‘single post’ template and any ad blocks I added above below the title or above the comments got plastered for all posts on the front page. After trying hard for almost three hours, I finally gave up and reverted back to my current theme. Much can be said about my blogging priorities if I decide to dump an otherwise beautiful theme just because I couldn’t insert ads.

Anyway, I did manage to work a little more on my current theme and iron out a few flaws; some of which might help on your blog too. But I’ll keep that for a later post.

“WordPress Theme tinkering” [Short URL: http://www.ipatrix.com/?p=1887] was published Sunday, February 18th, 2007 at 10:12 am by Patrix, filed under Weblogs, and tagged as , , . Both comments and linkbacks are closed.

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  • http://palscape.wordpress.com BongoP’o'ndit

    As a post-PhD blogger, let me assure you that this is the best time for indulging in blogging. Time constraints only get worse from here. Imagine being a post-doc and having limited time to get a job or when you are a faculty and having to write grants 24×7 (though I dont know what the situation is in your field).

    Patrix replied: That’s what I keep telling myself. No wonder I wish to remain a student all my life. The grants situation is just as dire in my field as it must be in yours.

  • http://www.retributions.wordpress.com confused

    And my other PhD blog friend seems more obsessed with blogs than I currently am so I shouldn’t be feeling all the guilty.

    I protest. In fact, I have a life, for example I spend Saturday nights reading newspapers. See? No blogs for me unlike you.

    As far as templates go, just put up the credits and I will go forth and steal. :P

    Patrix replied:     Oh yeah! I nearly forgot the fun activity of spending Saturday nights reading newspapers. At least you get sloshed sometimes. No such luck for me although had an incident that I must write about sometime soon before it gets stale. The URL for the templates is in the post. I’m not telling which one I used coz I might return to it someday.

  • http://ckunte.com/ Chetan

    The theme didn’t have a ’single post’ template and any ad blocks I added above below the title or above the comments got plastered for all posts on the front page.

    Creating a single post template is far too easy. Make a copy of your main page template (index.php) and rename it to single.php. You can then modify the hell out of it, to get your customization for single posts. (If the WordPress theme engine notices single.php, it would load it instead of index.php.) The front page would then remain unchanged.

    Patrix replied:

    You can then modify the hell out of it.

    Easier said than done for me. So far I have ventured only as far as modifying templates not creating them. I wouldn’t know where to begin and it scares the shit outta me when the site breaks. But I’ll muster up the courage and try it sometime. Any non-K2 templates out there to refer?

  • http://palscape.wordpress.com BongoP’o'ndit

    No such luck for me although had an incident that I must write about sometime soon before it gets stale.

    Tales of drunken bloggers are always enjoyable. Eagerly awaiting yours.

    Patrix replied: Soon :)

  • http://pikeyspeak.wordpress.com The Piker

    As a matter of fact, when people are out on weekends at Northgate guzzling down beer and grinding their way to glory, I sit at home watching TV shows on my laptop. It’s great to know that Fox, NBC and the others see the virtue of streaming their shows online on their official websites so that single and lonely grad students like me can watch them. :)
    And yeah, this week I went to Northgate to the Mardi Gras party. It had all the elements except the flashing part :(

    Patrix replied: I know. We desis can be real nerds. We would have killed ourselves if it weren’t for unlimited bandwidth and I bet FOX, NBC aren’t the only channels you watch ;) And a Mardi Gras party without flashing? You could have attended Dandiya Raas instead.

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